Mass Effect: Degradation
by Drake Cross
Summary: The Ishimura has docked onto the Citadel along with it's deadly cargo after appearing in the Serpent Nebula. The space station's only hope now is the returning Commander Shepard and his team aganist the Necromophers. Mass Effect/Dead Space Crossover.
1. Prologue: Infection

**Prologue: Infection**

Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or Dead Space in any way.

Author's note: The story takes place after paragon Shepard and the entire team had destroyed the Collector Base. Isaac is still on the Ishimura before he leaves it for Aegis VII to return the red marker before it enters the Mass Effect universe.

Edited by my sister.

In the center of the Serpent Nebula was the Citadel, the massive space station that was home to the powerful Citadel Counsel who maintained the balance with all united alien civilizations; it was just a normal day for the millions of people who lived on the grand space station, along with the hundreds of space ships that traveled to it daily. On the space station was Citadel Control, the main hub for organizing ship docking and making sure scans of the nebula were clear of hostiles. All the technicians in the control room were busy working on their computers, Omni-tools, or talking to different ships through the com-system. Many of them were tired out from the constant work, or just plain bored with their job. One extremely bored turian stood out, since he was the only one not busy talking to any of the approaching ships and was just slowing working on a small report.

"In coming system scan report." Spoke a cool female voice of the Citadel Control command computer VI.

Giving a bored sigh, the turian technician saved his report and started typing on the console, making the recent scans taken around Citadel Space appear on the screen. He was pretty sure there was nothing new or important about the scans, but ever since the attack of the Geth and Sovereign, it had become a full daily routine. However something new had appeared on the report and it was big. With a concerned look, the turian closely read the report to make sure what he was read was correct. Quickly, he turned his seat around to look at a human, who was the staff supervisor, standing in the center of the control room and looking over the shoulders of the other technicians' work.

"Sir, we have an unknown spacecraft entering the Nebula and heading towards the Citadel!"

"What is it, the Geth? How could they have traveled here through the Mass Relay without being caught?" The staff supervisor demanded as he hurried over to the turian's computer to look at the report.

"That's the thing sir…it just appeared out of nowhere. It must have been traveling with engine power alone or maybe a FTL System, but it would take months just to get here from the nearest star system."

The supervisor shook his head as he read the scan report, then looked through the control room window and out at the glowing Nebula. Far off in the distance was the ship, which seemed like it was just cruising out purple light of the star.

"Get one of the station's cameras to zoom in on the approaching ship." Commanded the Supervisor with his tone dark and serious as he gave the orders to the turian.

The turian nodded and typed in a new command, making the screen change into a closer view toward the distant ship. The supervisor leaned in closer a pressed a key to zoom the camera closer until they had a full view of the ship.

"My god…It's huge…" Muttered the turian as the ship slowly continued to drift closer towards the Citadel.

"It looks like mining ship of some kind and it seems like it is in bad shape. Multiple hull breaches, engines on backup and gravity systems seem to be disabled in many parts of the ship." Commented the Supervisor as he made the camera pan around to view all the angles of the Citadel, stopping it when came over the name of the ship.

"The USG Ishimura…Sounds like a human ship, but it does not look like any of the ships they have." Commented the technician as he started to do a scan of the vessel.

The staff supervisor nodded and then answered back. "You're right, maybe this is one got lost and the crew either evacuated or died out."

"Well…For a ghost ship there seems to a lot of movement inside, even a few life signs from what the scanners say." The turian said with a nervous look in his eyes.

With a blank look, the supervisor moved back to the center of the control room and yelled out; "Everyone, we have a large damaged ship coming in towards the Citadel with possible injured personal inside! I need all ships to either dock right now or back away from the Citadel for an emergency docking; we got a least thirty minutes before it reaches us, so get moving people!"

Citadel Control was in a rush of action as calls to ships were made and rapid commands were typed into multiple computers, making ships quickly dock or quickly fly out of the Citadel. As the USG Ishimura continued it's slow drift towards the space station, the staff supervisor called C-Sec office to get some officers and a medical team ready for whoever or whatever may be on the ship.

…

Inside the main docking bay, the C-Sec and medical team stood by the airlock doors until there was a beep and a light on top of the door glowed green, followed by the doors opening with the hiss of decompression.

"Alright everyone, our job is to see how bad the situation on the ship is. From what we know, the power is out in many parts of the ship, but since the ship is docked we don't have to worry about life-support." said the leading turian C-sec officer to the other members of the team.

"Be ready for anything, for all we know this ship may have husks or even Geth on it for all we know." He pulled out his M-3 Predator and checked to make sure the thermal clip was in place with a small sinister chuckle at the idea of a good fight.

Some of the other officers laughed a bit as well and took out their own weapons, but the medical team just shook their heads with disapproval. The leading officer then walked into the air lock and pressed a button to open the second airlock door into the Ishimura. The leading officer gave a curse as he looked into the pitch black darkness of the ship. Suddenly, yellow glowing eyes appeared in the darkness to stare out at the two teams ominously.

"What the hell…?" Muttered the leading officer as more glowing eyes appeared in the darkness, followed by low growls toward them.

Raising his gun up he flicked on the flash light and then gave a terrified scream at what he saw, before a sharp bone blade stabbed right through his throat. He dropped his gun as his hands grasped at his neck to try and stop the bleeding until another blade cut through his armor shields and sunk into his chest. Falling to the ground, he could hear the bloodcurdling screeches of the deadly creatures rushed pass him, followed by the rest of the team firing their guns franticly until screaming into horror and pain before his vision faded into darkness…

Author's Note: Anyway, this was my first shot at writing a cross-over. Please R&R my story to give me any corrections or complaints about it. First chapter will be out soon, thank you for reading!


	2. Chapter One: Descent

**Chapter One: Descent **

Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or Dead Space in any way.

Author's note: The story takes place after male paragon Shepard and the entire team had destroyed the Collector Base. Isaac is still on the Ishimura before he leaves it for Aegis VII to return the red marker before it enters the Mass Effect universe. Thoughts for Shepard are in Italic.

Edited by my sister.

Shepard was staring out into the dark void of space, the faint lights of distant stars flickering before him. The universe seemed calm and peaceful for once, giving Shepard a strange sense of safety after so much fighting. Then there seemed to be a ripple in space, through impossible means, and a tare ripped open in the darkness. A great ship slowly drifted out of the torn piece of space and into the dim light of the distant stars. Shepard thought it was the Reapers, having somehow reached their galaxy sooner than believed, but then the ship came into full view. It was not a Reaper ship, but instead a large and badly damaged mining ship of some kind. Then suddenly the sounds of whispers and muttering filled the air, an indescribable language starting to fill Shepard's mind and pushing any other thoughts aside. The voices then faded and were replaced with howls and screams which were in turn replaced by voices again as the ship loamed over him as if ready to devour him whole. Shepard felt an unnerving sense of panic fill his heart as the shadow of the looming ship enveloped him.

…

Commander John Shepard woke up from his sleep with a gasp and sat up in his bed. He breathed heavily for a few moments to calm himself from the creepy and surreal dream he had just had. Memories of the Collector Base came to him, of the rescue of the Normandy's crew, the discovery and fight with the Human Reaper along with the destruction of the base. That had been about a week ago. Since then the Normandy has been slowly traveling back toward the Citadel, taking it's time to repair any damages and allow the crew to rest after the dangerous mission. Still, even with the war with the Reapers was coming, that the nightmare of that large ship and the dark whispers still gave him a feeling of despair to him.

'_It was just a bad dream…Nothing more…'_ He thought as he got out of bed and changed into his uniform.

As he headed for the elevator down Combat Information Center the small hologram projector near it activated and the blue sphere of EDI appeared on it.

"Good morning Commander Shepard." Spoke the smooth calm voice of the ship's AI.

"Hello EDI. Have the repairs to the ship been complete yet?" Shepard replied back.

"Yes. All primary systems have been fully restored and secondary systems are now being full attended to."

"Good. We don't want to look too beaten down once we get back to Citadel and meet the counsel." Shepard said as he then pressed the button to call up the elevator.

"Speaking about the Citadel, we reserved a message from Councilor Anderson while you were asleep. It seems very important and he wished to speak to you along with the rest of the crew." EDI said quickly just as the light above the elevator turned green, showing that it was ready.

"Then quickly call up everyone to the meeting room and open a com channel up to him." Shepard told EDI as pressed the button to open the elevator doors and came face to face with Tali.

"Very well Shepard." EDI said as her hologram disappeared, but Shepard barely heard her as the shy looking quarian stared back at him with a faint look of surprise hidden behind her mask. Ever since their relationship had started, Tali had been working more enthusiastically in both past missions and in the engine room. However, she always got nervous around Shepard and always seemed to worry about the condition that her race bared, fearing that it would cause him to worry too much about her.

"s-Shepard…I just was coming up to check on you." She said in a nervous voice. "Ever since the mission, you had been staying in your cabin most of the time…Everyone has been starting to worry about you."

Shepard gave a small smile, the dark mood of the dream leaving him from hearing Tali's words. He had been spending more time away from Tali and the rest of the crew after the attack, thinking over how he would have to convince the Counsel to unite against the Reaper threat and start planning on how to defeat them.

"I'm sorry Tali. Just been a lot on my mind since we stopped the Collectors. After all we went through, it's just been stressful for me." He replied back.

"I see…Well...Just don't forget about the rest of us, Shepard. We are always ready to help you no matter what." She said in a more confident voice as she stepped aside in the elevator to let him enter it.

"Trust me Tali, I could never forgot you or anyone else after all we have been through together." He said as he stepped into the elevator and pressed a button, sending it down to the second level.

Tali and Shepard were silent as the elevator headed down, both of them giving side looks at each other. Then Tali turned to look at Shepard and was about to speak to him before the elevator stopped moving and the doors quickly slid open. Before Shepard could ask what she was going to say she was already walking out of the elevator and heading for the meeting room.

Giving a small sigh, he following after her towards the meeting room, hoping to get the briefing over with quickly so he could talk to her and end her worries about each other.

As he walked into the meeting room, he found the entire team standing around the projector table which had an image of Councilor Anderson in the center of it. Shepard looked at the faces of Garrus, Grunt, Jack, Jacob, Legion, Miranda, Mordin, Samara, Tali, and Thane, who all turned to look at him.

"Good morning everyone. I hope everyone has recovered well after our last mission." Shepard said after a moment of silence.

Everyone nodded and then Mordin stepped up and said; "Everyone is near full recovery. A few minor aches and pains, but nothing too serious to stop us from doing our duties."

Shepard nodded, glad to know that everyone was fine and then turned to look at the hologram of Anderson.

"So why the sudden message Anderson? Did the Counsel finally agree about doing something about the Reapers?" He asked him.

Anderson shook his head and said. "No…It's something a bit more serious." Giving a moment of pause he then continued to speak. "About two days ago an unknown ship entered the Serpent Nebula and drifted towards the Citadel. From what we could tell from scans is that it is a large mining colony ship of some kind and that it was badly damaged in multiple ways. We picked up a couple of life signs on board along with a lot of movement as well. So an order was made to allow the ship to dock and to send in a recovery team to see what they could do to help anyway still alive on board."

Anderson then became silent as he took a moment to let the information sink in for everyone.

"But when the recovery team opened the door's connecting to the ship, contact with them was quickly lost. Soon there were cases of attacks and deaths on C-Sec officers and other personal. Quickly afterwards, contact was lost to the entire docking area, along with the nearby Wards. So far the Counsel believes this attack to be from the Geth, or maybe terrorists."

When Anderson talked about the attack being on the Geth, Legion quickly spoke up.

"Very unlikely. Since the Heretics are now part of the Geth there can be no more for our kind to attack anyone. Besides, there has been no activity in the network about plan for attacking the Citadel."

"Like I said, this is what the Counsel has told the public, they don't want this to look like another attack to start up a panic. Also, they still don't want to believe this as some kind of plan of the Reapers in any way." Anderson quickly said back. "But even so…I don't believe this is related to the Reapers. Something seems different about this…"

Shepard shook his head and then said. "Reapers or not, if the Citadel is in trouble we are still going to help out in any way we can."

Anderson gave a small smile and nod for thanks to Shepard. "Good…The Counsel wants you to dock near the area where we lost contact with Citadel Control, keeping away from the unknown ship as much as possible. Find out what is going on and get things back to order."

"Will do Anderson, we will try to contact you back soon." Shepard replied back as Anderson ended the transmission.

As Anderson's image disappeared, everyone on the team then started talking amongst themselves over what they had just learned. Garrus turned to look at Shepard and said; "Well…So much for relaxing back at the Citadel. Still it does not make sense about how contact had been lost. Even if Geth hacked into the system, they would still have a way to at least send out a distress signal. So what is possibly stopping them from doing that?"

Shepard just gave a small shrug and said; "We just have to wait and see, Garrus. Don't worry, I'm sure everything will turn out fine in the end."

"If you say so, Commander…" Garrus said before he walked past him and headed back to his work station.

"Don't see why he should be complaining. This is just another good chance for a fight." Grunt muttered. "After a week resting, I'm already getting tired of just standing around doing nothing."

"Well it's different for Garrus, Grunt. The Citadel is almost like Garrus' home so it really means a lot to him." Shepard replied back.

Grunt just gave an annoyed sigh, not really caring about how Garrus felt about the situation before he quickly left the meeting room.

"Don't worry about Grunt, Shepard. The lack of action is just getting to him. In time he will be more understanding." Jacob said before he headed back to the armory, while Miranda followed him out back to her office.

"Interesting…first was Collectors and now this. Maybe the Citadel event is related to them. Unlikely…but it is worth looking into." Mordin muttered to himself before he left to go back to his lab.

"We will continue to look through the network. Perhaps data on this ship's origins can be found." Legion said before he left as well.

Jack just gave a shrug and spoke in a bored manner; "Why bother trying to figure things out? Everyone is just better off waiting until we get there, at least once there we'll know what's going on…" She then walked off to her place at the bottom of the ship.

"For once, I agree with Jack…The best answer will come to us once we are there. Better to rest and prepare." Samara replied as she left as well with Thane following close after her, leaving Shepard and Tali alone with each other.

Tali just stared at Shepard silently, a look of concern in her eyes. Slowly she walked up to Shepard and said; "Never a break from the action, Shepard? Makes me wonder when there will be a time when things could be peaceful for once…"

She gave a sigh and looked away from him, trying to hide the sadness she felt. Shepard knew what Tali meant and at times he wished for the same ideals, but he knew that things could not change that quickly.

"Tali, I know we have been through a lot together… From fighting Saren and Sovereign, the two years with me being gone, and then battling the Collectors. I just know that sooner or later, everything will settle down." He said to her kindly as he held her hands.

"You're right, but what if you or I die, or something causes everyone to be separated? I want things to be the way that they should be…" Tali muttered as she looked up at him with a worried glint in her eyes.

Giving a small smile Shepard said; "How about this…After this mission we take a few weeks off…Just you and me."

Tali gave a surprised but quickly happy gaze before nodding and spoke in an excited voice; "Really, you mean it! Wow…That would be nice, even if it was a short while... It would mean a lot to me, Shepard…"

"Then it's a promise, Tali..." Shepard said before he hugged her in a close embrace.

Tali hugged him back, and after a long moment they both let go. Tali then headed for the door and out of the meeting room, but then paused and turned to look back at Shepard before speaking; "Thank you…Shepard…", and then she quickly turned away to head back to the engine room, leaving Shepard alone with his thoughts.

Shepard took a moment to think over the time they would spend together. It was amazing how things had worked out between both of them, even with Tali's weak immune system forcing her to wear her suit. He hoped that this mission would be quick and easy, so that everyone could have the time they needed to rest.

'Nothing can go wrong, after everything we have done and seen I doubt there will be anything different about this mission.' He thought as he left the meeting room to go and prepare for the Citadel.

…..

Light-years away in a well hidden space station, the Illusive Man looked out at the glowing blue nebula, thinking over Shepard's latest actions. It had already been a week since Shepard had destroyed the Collector Base, taking away any technology that could prove as an advantage for Cerberus and mankind. Even so, Shepard still was valuable, even if he did not believe in Cerberus' methods. He took a last drag of his cigarette before he put it out in the nearby ashtray. Then, the sound of footsteps came behind him until they stopped behind his chair.

"So is it true, about Shepard investigating the incident happening at the Citadel?" Asked a strange man who stood back in the shadows.

"Yes…I heard it from Commander Shepard himself. They should have known better to think that I would not still have ways to listen to them." The Illusive Man answered back.

"Of course sir, so what is our next course of action?"

"You and your team will get into the closed off sector of the Citadel to collect any information and technology that this ghost ship has. If the information is correct, there should be a weapon, a bio-weapon to be exact, that can either be a threat or an advantage for us."

The man nodded, understanding what the Illusive Man told him. "Still sir, what kind of bio-weapon are we talking about? I don't want to go in there and get my men infected."

"It is harmless toward anyone still living, but any dead human or alien will prove otherwise. This thing is from another universe, something that even the Reapers have never seen before. With it, the tide of future wars with them will change for humanity's' dominance."

He paused to light up another cigarette and took a long breath from it, before turning to face the shadowed man.

"Do not fail me, Agent …You know what happens when people let me down." He said in a low and serious voice to the Cerberus Agent.

The man stepped out into the light showing his full appearance. He was dressed a Cerberus combat armor, but not wearing the helmet

"I have never failed before, and I don't plan to fail yet…" He said in determination before he turned away to gather his team, leaving the Illusive Man to look out at the blue nebula.

….

"Approaching the Citadel, Normandy will be docking in less the five minutes!" Said Joker over the Normandy's speaker system, the massive space station coming into the ship's view.

Crew members hurried to their work stations to prepare for the ship's landing while Shepard's team headed for the meeting room for their final mission briefing. Shepard entered meeting room to find everyone with their weapons strapped in their holsters and backs, Shepard himself being dressed in full N7 armor, but not wearing the usual helmet. He was also equipped with an assault rifle, hand cannon pistol, sniper rifle, shotgun, and grenade launcher. He moved to take his place at the far end of the table before he looked at his team with a serious expression.

"Alright, from what we know, we are pretty much facing an unknown enemy. However, they are on the Citadel, which we have the advantage over." He said in a commanding way. "Since there is much of this sector to cover, we are going to split into two teams, one led by me and the other by Garrus."

Shepard looked over at Garrus, who nodded in agreement and the said; "I was once part of C-Sec, so I know my way around the station and can get into the security grid with the codes that I remember."

"Yes…Your job is to investigate the C-Sec Headquarters in the sector and see what help or information you can get. My team will head for Citadel Control to learn more about this unknown ship. Later on, we will find a rendezvous point and plan our next course of action from there."

Everyone nodded in agreement towards the plan before Garrus stepped off to the side and said; "So, who will be on my squad, Captain Shepard?"

"You will be having Grunt, Jacob, Samara, Miranda and Legion going with you. My team will consist of Tali, Jack, Mordin and Thane. Everyone is to stay together at all costs and to remain in radio contact. Now, let's get this mission over with quickly now shall we?"

The ship soon entered the docking bay on the other side of the Citadel sector, soon coming to a smooth stop as mechanical arms came out to hold the ship in place.

"Normandy completely docked sir, feel free to head out onto the station." Said Joker over the speakers.

Garrus nodded and signaled for his team to head for the airlock. As he passed by Shepard, he quickly spoke; "Be careful out there, Shepard. I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling about this mission."

"I'm sure it will be fine, Garrus. We are all just stressed from our last mission, so let's not overdo ourselves on this one alright?" He replied back.

"Yes…your right. Don't worry commander, I won't let you or the rest of the team down." He then hurried after his own team before following them into the airlock.

After a few minutes, Shepard led his team into the airlock as well before he pressed a button to close to door behind them. The hiss of decompression began, preparing them for boarding the Citadel. Shepard looked over at Thane, Jack, Mordin, and Tali; all of them ready to face whatever waiting on the space station. Soon the hissing stopped and the green light of the door in front of them turned green.

"Alright everyone…move out!" Ordered Shepard as he drew his assault rifle as the door slid open in front of them. He quickly ran forward into the Citadel, everyone else drawing out their weapons as they followed after the commander. Little did they know that the hidden horrors that lay within already knew they were coming…

….

Far off on the other side of Citadel sector, a man dressed in an iron colored suit walked down the hallways nervously. Isaac Clarke knew that things were now much worse than they had been before ever since the USG Ishimura had been transported into this unknown sector of space. From what he could tell, the ship had drifted toward this large space station and the inhabitants had allowed the ship to dock, not knowing of the deadly cargo it held. He needed to get the Ishimura away from this station before the Necromorphers over took it, and they would no doubt if they weren't stopped. He had to return to Aegis VII to end the monstrous alien threat; it was the only way to save himself and the few survivors on board. Loading a new clip into his plasma cutter, he slowly walked deeper into the Citadel.

Author's Note: It's the calm before the storm. Anyway things will start to get exciting next chapter. However, school is starting up again soon so I will not be posting up the next chapter for a while. Also look at my profile to look at any of my other story projects. Don't forget to R&R, if there are any mistakes, complaints or suggestions you wish to give please tell me.


	3. Chapter Two: Disconnection

**Chapter Two: Disconnection **

A beam of light scanned through the dimly lit hallway, as Shepard quickly and carefully led his team deeper into the Citadel. So far there had been nothing out of place besides the lack of power, but still a feeling of uncertainty hang over the commander. Soon, the last door to leading out of the docking and transit area stood in their way. Shepard noticed how the door was in lockdown mode, which meant that someone must have sealed it from the other side. Tali, Jack, Thane, and Mordin soon gathered around the door, wondering why Shepard had stopped.

"Door is sealed off." Shepard said before anyone could as him. "Looks like some major encryptions on it that I can't even get open."

Tali then stepped over beside him and then activated her omni-tool on her arm.

"Leave it to me Shepard; I'll have it cracked into just a moment." She said in a confident tone.

Shepard nodded and moved away to let Tali work on the door, standing back with the rest of the group. Then Garrus's voice cracked on his headset communicator.

"Shepard, we just ran into a door set to lockdown. Right now Legion is busy getting it open, but something is strange with it being like that."

"Why is that?" Shepard asked.

"Well…Lockdown is only used if there is a major combat in a ward, like a geth invasion, or to act as quarantine to stop any infectious diseases from spreading around the Citadel or to other space systems."

"So which one is it then?"

"I can't be sure…C-Sec keeps records about anything like that happening, so once we reach their headquarters' we will find out what happened."

"Alright Garrus, be careful out there."

"Don't worry commander, Garrus out." He said before ending the transmission.

As soon as the transmission ended, there was a click and buzz sound from the door, followed by Tali giving faint laugh at her success.

"Let's hurry up commander." She said as she pressed a button to make the door quickly slide open and made a human body fall forward from the other side.

Tali gave a shocked gasp as she quickly stepped away from the door as the body felled face first to the ground. Everyone, but Shepard and Tali aimed their guns at the body, while Shepard carefully walked over to the body. Carefully he flipped it over to show the face and front of the body. His face was badly crushed and cut in many different parts, which was barely able to hold together evens in the condition it was in. Also the chest had long cuts and stab wounds all over, as if someone had just used a sword to attack.

"Shit…What the hell happened to him?" Said Jack as she moved closer to get a better look of the dead body. "Not even the crazies back in prison could do this much."

Mordin stepped up to look over the wounds as well and started to do some scans with his omni-tool.

"Human. Maintenance worker by look of uniform. Has multiple stab wounds by the looks of it. Most of them lethal. Too many to determine cause of death. Has been dead for at least twelve hours from what I can determine. It is as if attacker was just blindly trying to kill this man." He commented after a moment after he finished his quick scans.

"Weapon must have been very crude from the looks of it. Does not seem to be from any knife or bladed weapon I have seen." Said Thane as he looked around the other side of the door to make sure there was no one else on the other side.

"Still…who or what could have done this?" Ask Tali as she gave a worried look towards Shepard.

"I don't know, but we are here to find out." Shepard said back as he then activated his communicator to link it to the Normandy and Garrus's team.

"EDI, Joker, Garrus, we got a casualty. Someone or something brutality cut and stabbed some maintenance worker, so that means we can cross the Geth off our list of attackers."

"Jeez commander…Well what the heck is behind all of this?" Ask Joker.

"I don't know…EDI, can you do a scan of the wards so we can at least guess on how many people are still around."

"Very well commander…" Replied EDI, before she became silent for a few moments to start the scan and process the results. "Strange…I am picking up life signs, minus Keepers, in different parts throughout the wards. However, I am picking up movement all over the place, yet there are not life signs creating the movement."

"This doesn't make sense…" Muttered Garrus through the communicator, a hint of confusion in his voice. "It can't be Geth and mechs are not designed for this kind of killing. My last guess would be husks, but since when did they ever use blades or even weapons. It just does not add up…"

"I agree…Still we have a mission to do and sooner or later the answer will come to us."

"I hope your right commander…Garrus out." Garrus said in a worried tone just before he turned off the com-link.

Shepard turned off the com-link as well and turned to look at the rest of his squad.

"Let's keep moving, all lights towards the shadows and be ready for anything." He said before he stepped past the body and doorway, leading everyone deeper into the Ward.

…

On the far side of the ward, a small landing cruiser with the Cerberus symbol quickly landed onto the central plaza. The doors quickly opened and a half a dozen Cerberus troops quickly moved out, spreading around to secure the landing zone.

"All clear Agent Blake." Yelled out one of the Cerberus trooper's back to the masked Cerberus agent, who was already walking out of the cruiser.

The agent looked around the plaza and at his squad, who were already gathering back towards him, ready for their orders.

"Good work…Now we need to get the commutation jammer up to stop anyone from try to report about us. Shepard is here and if he finds us then the Counsel or even Alliance will try to track down Cerberus." Blake said in a serious and commanding tone to the troopers.

"You were all handpicked by the Illusive Man for this mission. Failure is not allowed. Our objective here may change the tide for humanity against the Reapers and even the rest of the galaxy."

The Soldiers nodded in agreement and seemed more confident over their mission. Two of them walked pass Agent Blake and back into the cruiser to pull out what looked like a relay device of some kind, which they then placed next to the ship.

"This jammer is set to block any transmission other than our own. This will cause some problems for Shepard and his team, but I'm sure they will find a way past it. Right now we need to find the right 'subject' to collect samples from, along with any tech we can take for the unknown ship. Now let's hurry up so we can get out of here."

The soldiers quickly started unloading the ship and setting up some lights to illuminate the area around the landing zone. Blake moved over to the jammer device and powered it up, making it give a blue glow and flash. There was a small crackle of static on his communicator, but it quickly subsided.

"Have fun Shepard…" He said to himself after giving a small laugh, as he walked off to help organize the troops.

…

Back on the Normandy, Joker was busy checking over EDI's scans of the Citadel Ward when the suddenly the screen showing Shepard's and Garrus's com signals went completely blank. Shaking his head, he quickly started typing on the computer to try and bring them back up.

"No no…this can't be good…" He muttered to himself as he failed to reconnect with any of the teams. "Why does stuff like this always happen?"

"It seems like some transmission from within the Ward is causing a disruption with both our short and long distance communicators." Exclaimed EDI, as she suddenly appeared on the hologram right next to Joker.

"So you mean Shepard and the others are just on their own now? There has to be something we can do." Joker replied back.

"I'm already tracking down the transmission's source, but it will take time to locate and even longer to disable. We can only hope that the others will figure out what's wrong and try to shut it down somehow."

"I hope your right EDI…" Said Joker glumly as he sat back, keeping a close watch over the teams positions as they traveled deeper into the Citadel.

…

"Damn it! Why can I contact Shepard or the Normandy?" Garrus said in frustration as he tried to use his com, but only got static.

Everyone was busy look around a Citadel Gift Shop which they were investigating to see if anyone was still around.

"Found some blood stains over here." Said Jacob, who was kneeling down, busy taking a scan of the blood trail with his omni-tool. "Whoever made his must be in pretty bad shape."

"Shop is empty…but Legion found something on the security camera." Grunt called out from the store.

"Alright everyone, let's go check out what Legion has found out." Ordered Garrus as he hurried into the store and found Legion and Grunt looking at the computer screen on the store counter. Soon Jacob, Miranda and Samara quickly followed after him and also gathered around the computer as well.

"This is footage from one day ago." Legion exclaimed as he pressed the play button on the screen to start the security video.

The video had a view of the store counter, the main part of the store and a bit of the view just outside. There was an Asari clerk standing behind the counter, busy on the Externet looking through e-mails. Then she looked up from the computer as a group of people ran pass the store screaming. The Asari quickly hurried outside, just staying in the camera's view, before she gave a scream of terror as a large form jumped into view and grabbed her out of view.

"What the hell was that?" Miranda asked Garrus in a nervous tone.

"Legion, back up to the moment of the attack and pause it…" Garrus said in a grave tone to the geth.

"Complying…" Answered Legion, who revised the video then quickly paused it to have a full image of the attacker.

"What the hell is that!" Muttered Grunt in surprised, yet interested tone, as he stared at the screen.

The creature on the screen had a lower jaw, but two long jutting fangs poked out from its upper jaw. It had two arms, but no legs, which seemed to be replaced by a long, sharp tail. The skin was deathly pale and patches of red, rotting flesh could be seen from protruding bones all over its body.

"By the goddess…never have I seen any creature this horrid before..." Said Samara in a shocked voice.

"This is wrong…Look at the head and the torso. It resembles a human by the way it looks, so that could mean only one thing…" Comment Miranda, who pointed out the human like features on the screen.

"A biological weapon…Makes the Husks completely obsolete." Said Jacob, who had already known what Miranda was thinking.

The team was already talking amongst themselves, giving their own ideas about this new threat, but then Garrus yelled out. "Quiet! Everyone!"

Everyone became silent and looked at him, looks of worry on their faces because of their new situation. After a moment of silence, Garrus spoke up again.

"We can't let our own fears get the better of us in this situation. For all we know these may just be a bunch of mutant experiments that escaped from the ship. Also if there is a disease we can't be sure if it's airborne or has a different way of infection. For all we know this disease may only affect humans."

Jacob and Miranda gave annoyed looks at Garrus, as if he did not really care if they died.

"Not that it would be a good thing if it could do that…" Garrus muttered in sorry way.

"Still, we need to find more info to figure out the truth and maybe even find some survivors. We've fought Collectors, Geth and all sorts of freaks, so let's not freak out over this one. We have a mission to do so let's at least get it done."

Everyone nodded in agreement and Grunt gave a confident chuckle at the thought of fighting something new and dangerous. Then there came a low howling sound out in the darkness outside of the store. Everyone quickly turned and aimed their weapons out into the darkness, their built in lights barely lighting up the outside of the store.

"Everyone, move to defensive positions!" Ordered Garrus.

He quickly switched his assault rifle for the sniper rifle as he took cover behind the counter with Legion who had his rifle out as well. Grunt and Jacob moved up closer to the store entrance with their shotguns at the ready, while Samara and Miranda hid behind displays as their prepared to use their biotics. There was silence, the only sound was everyone breathing steadily, and waiting for whatever lay in wait deep in the darkness. Then the air filled with howls, moans and screams as yellow piercing eyes appeared. A long bone like arm reached out forward and strapped the ground, before a large pale form jumped out to charge at the team.

"Open fire!" Garrus yelled out over the chorus of horrid screams and moans, which soon was defined by the sound of gun fire.

…

Just a few floors above Garrus's team, Shepard's team had soon reached the entrance to Citadel Control.

"Alright, we made it. Better call on Garrus to check if he has reached C-Sec Headquarters." Shepard said to the rest of his team.

He activated his com, but only the sound of static filled his ear when he tried to connect with Garrus or the Normandy. Shutting off the com link, he looked over at the team who already knew something was wrong.

"Let me guess…Someone is jamming our com links?" Tali said in an annoyed tone.

Shepard nodded and then suddenly a faint clanging sound echoed out from the darkness. Everyone slowly looked around, guns rising up in case of an attack.

"We are not alone…" Thane muttered in a grave voice as he looked closely into the shadows.

"I was already guessing that." Shepard replied back, as a faint growl came from behind him along pair of yellow eyes that stared down at him.

…

Hidden in deep inside the ward, two figures stood in the bright light of the dozens of computer screens, showing many different parts of the Ward. The one was a volus in red and white pressure suit, while the other was a male quarian in black and dark purple.

"Are you sure-sss- that this is-sss- a good idea?" Said the volus to the quarian as the watched Garrus's and Shepard's teams get attacked by the

"There is no turning back now. We have already done too much to just give up now." The quarian said angrily. "The necromorphs have proven useful to us so far…We still have much more for them to do."

"You think they-sss- can be controlled still-sss-?" Said the volus in a nervous tone.

"Yes! My device has worked perfect on them, even the largest of them will bend to our will."

"What about-sss- the human from the-sss- ship and the-sss- Cerberus troopers?" Ask the volus.

"He is just one scared human. Sooner or later they will find and kill him. The Cerberus troopers will be taken care of as well. For now…Shepard and the others will be dealt with first." The Quarian said in an annoyed tone.

"Very well.-sss- Then I guess I'll-sss- leave everything-sss- too you, Ronza." The volus said, before hobbling away into the next room.

"Yes…leave it to me…" Ronza muttered to himself as he stared at an image of Tali'Zorah on one of the screens, before reaching out to it as if trying to touch her.

…

Isaac panted as he hurried across the open plaza, trying his best to find some cover. A bone chilling screech filled the air and the flapping of large wings echoed throughout the room. Isaac quickly slid for cover behind a pillar and pressed his back against it, trying to catch his breath. Carefully he looked around, mainly looking up to see if the strange nercomorph was still nearby. Things just seemed to be getting worse for him, he was running low on powercells for the plasmacutter and with these new nercomorphs he was starting to get overwhelm him. Carefully he took an out of cover before the screech echoed out again. Then a large, dark formed appeared in the air and then dived at him, driving a terrified scream from him as it snatched him into the air.

Author's note: Cerberus troopers, hoards of nercomorphers, a mysterious quarian who seems to be pulling the strings and even more Isaac. Sorry if you now have a huge cliffhanger for now, but that will just make it all the more better in my next chapter. Please review if you have an complaints, suggestions, mistakes or comments you wish to share.


	4. Chapter Three: Separation

**Chapter Three: Separation **

Shepard slowly turned his head around to see what was behind him and his eye widen in shock at the monstrosity that raised its bladed arm to strike down at him. Quickly he rolled forward as the blade crashed down on where he had stood, leaving a large dent in the metal floor. Tali reached down to quickly pull Shepard up and then everyone aimed they lights and guns at the creature.

Its torso, legs and head resembled that of a human, only gruesomely twisted. The flesh was torn and rotten looking with bones and what looked like another pair of arms growing around its ripped out stomach. The face was bent and turned, along with its jaw nearly falling off from the sharp teeth that could just barely fit its mouth. The lights seemed to blind monster for a moment, making it back away a bit howling, trying to cover its face with its arms to little avail.

"What the fucking hell is that!" Jack yelled out in disgust and surprise as the creature stumbled around blinded.

The creature then suddenly stopped moving, as if it could hear something in the air. Everyone held their breath, wondering what was going on with this monster. Then with screech it charged at them, bladed arms slashing wildly in the air as it closed in on them.

"FIRE!" Shepard yelled out as he took aim with his assault rifle and started shooting.

The creature stumbled back as his shots hit it right in the chest, but it just kept moving forward in a slower pace. Tali and Jack both fired their Geth shotguns at it, blasting off an arm and a leg. Falling over, the creature used it's only arm and leg to crawl at them, still refusing to die. Thane then used a strong biotic wrap on it, making its already rotting arm fall off. Crying out pained and angry moans, the creature stopping moving and laid still on the ground.

"Is…is it dead?" Tali asked in a worried tone.

Slowly, Shepard walked up to the monster's corpse and then gave it a strong kick to the side. Then without warning the body seemed to spring to life and tried to lunge up at his face. Mordin quickly fired an incineration at the monster, setting it on fire and give Shepard a chance to get away from it. It screeched and shook as it burned, until it dropped dead, nothing more than a burnt corpse. Shepard gave a thankful nod to Mordin, while everyone gathered around the dead creature, giving concerned looks at each other.

"Mordin…Do you have any idea what this thing is?" Shepard asked the salerian doctor with a serious voice.

"No…At least not right now…" Mordin answered back, before activating his omni-tool and started taking scans of the creature.

Everyone waited silently as Mordin continued to do his scans, mainly looking out at the darkness, worried that there was more waiting to attack them.

"Done, but afraid you may not like results…" He said as he looked up from reading his omni-tool.

"Just tell us anyway…whatever this thing is it's the best lead we got to figuring out what has happen here. " Shepard replied back, although he already had his own ideas of what this thing really was.

"Very well…Scan showed that creature is in fact human. Many parts of DNA have been great modified, which also explains the…changes that the body has gone through. Also body has been dead for at least three days, which may explain for decay, but may just be side effect of genetic mutation." He said quickly before taking a deep breath.

"So you're saying someone or something is going around and mutating people?" Shepard questioned Mordin.

"Possible. But this virus or disease seems too uncontrollable and dangerous. More of a terror weapon, used to spread fear before a more planned attack by other forces…Still I doubt there is anyone who would be mad enough to create something like this…" Mordin answered back.

Shepard nodded in agreement and then said. "You said this body was dead for three days, yet the lock down was only a day ago."

"This creature may have been from the ship that had docked here and then gotten onto the Citadel. That means there is an outside source behind these mutants or this could be a body from a morgue here that was 'reanimated' by the virus. I can only guess, but other possibility would be the ghost ship."

Shepard looked down at the dead mutated body, knowing that this was starting to show as a much larger threat. He was about to question Mordin more, but an echoing howl filled the air, making everyone look around for the source of it.

"Everyone get inside the building…NOW!" Shepard ordered, before quickly running forward toward the Citadel Control Headquarters. Already twisted and hulking forms stumbled out of the shadows and the flapping of large whips filled the air. Everyone fired blindly out at the darkness as they ran inside the build, making pained screams and roars fill the air. Tali was already at the door terminal, quickly setting the door to lock down to cause it to slam shut just as the dark forms slammed against it.

Suddenly, the door shook and started to slowly begin to open. A pairs of bone claws had been able to find a grip on the thin gap of the door and the creatures were now trying to pull it open.

"Get the door wielded up now!" Shepard said as he pulled out the grenade launcher and fired a grenade into the crowd of monsters through the gap. Soon an explosion filled the air and body parts flew through the door which closed shut again. Tali quickly took out a small, but powerful laser tool and quickly melted the metal doors together, just as more of the monsters started bashing against the door again. After a few moments of the creatures howling in anger, before their voices seemed to fade away, showing the creatures had moved on for now.

"Seems like things are already out of hand here…" Thane said as he put away his rifle and looked over at the rest of the group, who were gathering up already.

"Agreed. If this virus does what we believe, then there are too many for us to handle. No chance of eliminating completely unless entire ward is fully decontaminated." Mordin said with a grim look on his face.

"I don't see any problem in killing them all ourselves, they do last long with biotics." Jack commented with an amused chuckle.

"Enough!" Shepard ordered in a loud tone. "First off Mordin is right...we don't stand a chance of clearing out the ward by ourselves. But we still need to make sure there are any survivors left, before we do anything rash. Even if these things had the chance to attack first, I doubt everyone would have been overwhelmed so easily because of the increase in security."

Tali walked up to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, wanting him to calm down. "We will do that…Lets at least try and find out more of this ship at least, so we can at least figure out where these things came from."

She stepped past him and walked over to one of the empty terminals, activating her omni-tool to skillfully hack into it.

"Strange…the data I'm getting seems corrupted…Someone must have hacked into Citadel Control and copied all the files before deleting and meddling the original data."

"Is there any chance of saving any data or at least any info about this hacker?" Shepard asked Tali as he stepped up to look at the lines of data across the terminal screen.

"There are a few bits left, but still…whoever did this knew what they were doing." She replied back as she worked quickly with her omni-tool.

"There, it's not much but I was at least able to get the ship's name and time of appearance." She then activated a projector on the omni-tool, bring up a large projection of the mining ship.

"It's called the USG Ishimura, judging from the size and design it is a mining/colony ship of some sort. It could easily hold an entire flotilla's worth of Quarians and still have room for more, although much of the ship is badly damaged in the hull and systems." She explained as the projection zoomed and rotated the image of the ship around. "Now…it was first spotted suddenly appearing near the center of the Serpent Nebula and drifting towards the Citadel around one day ago by Citadel Control. The ship's condition was noted and a mass effect field was used to pull the ship into main hanger be inspected. All contact toward the ship came back with no response and as soon as the doors into the ship unlocked the creatures attacked."

Typing in a new command onto the omni-tool, she brought up video footage of the first attack on the security team that was sent to check on the ship, leading to the monsters attacking them and getting onto the Citadel.

"The cameras and other security systems were operational for at least an hour, but then…there seems to be a crash in the system and everything, but the cameras are shut down." Tali said as she showed videos of defense turrets shutting down, bulkhead doors reopening and energy fields deactivating, allowing the monsters to charge into the station unchallenged.

"However in the last video I found, it shows someone quite interesting leaving the Ishimura." The other videos quickly disappeared and were replaced by a large screen of the ship airlock from the first video. Strangely the bodies of the dead C-Sec officers were gone, the only hints of them being there were their dropped weapons and blood stains. However a shadowed formed walked slowly out of the darkness of the ship entrance and into the light of the air lock. He seemed to be dressed in strange maintenance suit with a blue glowing visor and was carrying what looked like an energy tool of some kind that he must be using as a weapon. He quickly looked at the discarded pistols and even picked up one up, which he strapped onto his belt before hurrying off view and onto the Citadel.

"So it seems that there are still survivors on that ship too." Shepard said as Tali closed the video and turned off her omni-tool.

"It would make sense. The scans picked up a few life signs and since these creatures are dead they would not be picked up by scans." Mordin quickly said.

"Well our best chance of find more about these things is to find that survivor or getting onto the ship to look at the data files on it." Shepard said to everyone before looking at Tali. "So any idea how the security systems were shut off, there is no way someone in C-Sec would do such a thing."

"Well…The Citadel computer systems are powerful." Tali said in a thoughtful tone. "Keepers can easily access it, but they don't have any reason to do such a thing. A hacker could also get into the system as well, however that's tricky since it would take a lot of technical skill and tools to even try at all."

Shaking her head, she gave a sigh and said. "It doesn't make sense…If someone is behind all of this that means that could be watching us right now and could even use the defense system against us."

Everyone seemed to tense up at the thought, worried that turrets would just pop out of the ceiling to fire at them. Although nothing had happened so far, but now that meant they would have to be more on guard now.

"Even so, that will not stop us still." Shepard said in a confident tone, trying to get rid of the team's worry. "Our next goal is to try and find that survivor or get onto that ship to find the data we need. We also need to find a way to contact Garrus, since the coms are still being jammed, most likely from this hacker. Once we have the information we need, we will meet up with Garrus and take the survivors back to the Normandy for evac and to gather more forces to clear out the ward. Now let's find to the main docking area, maybe that survivor is still around there."

Quickly he led everyone down one of the corridors to find a way out of Citadel Control, however Tali stopped for a moment to look at a security camera that seemed to follow their movement. Giving a long look at it, she tapped a few controls on her omni-tool and quickly hacked the camera to shut it down, making it spark a few times before shutting down. Giving a small chuckle at her work, she ran after the others, hoping that would anger the hacker a bit for her disruption.

…

Off in a hidden part of Citadel, Ronza laughed a bit as he watched Tali shut down the camera that had seen their entire conversation, leaving onto a screen of static along the many camera videos. "Ah Tali'Zorah…Still the same as always…" He said to himself as he pressed a few buttons to have a new video screen take its place.

The video screen showed Garrus and his team continuing to fight the waves of Necromorphers, although they were slowly being forced to retreat from the store to find a better defense position.

"Impressive…" Ronza said as he watched them fight on still, but then noticed Eland the volus enter the room and stand beside him to look at the computer screen to watch the fight.

"Interesting -sss- they have lasted much longer than the -sss- others." He commented as he looked up at Ronza.

"Yes, they are the final test for the necromorphers. The heroic team of Commander Shepard and an entire team of Cerberus agents, the best the universe has to offer. Once they are eliminated then nothing will be able to stop our plans…"

Erlan gave a small chuckle and nod of agreement. "Yes -sss- as long as there is profit to be -sss- made as well. Don't forget it was -sss- I that gave you everything to do all of -sss- this."

Ronza gave a short annoyed glance at him, but nodded before looking back at the screens.

"Of course...You will be well rewarded in the end I can promise you." He said in a plain tone before he moved away from the large computer to move to the main part of the lab. "Now...I have much work to do. Also make sure she is ready to go out in case we have problems with Shepard or the others."

The volus nodded to him as he watched him disappear into the main lab and then looked back at the screen, wanting to see if Garrus's team would survive in the end.

…

"Don't stop firing! Hold them off just a bit longer!" Garrus yelled out to his team before shooting a concussion grenade out at a charging monster, hitting it right in the chest and exploding which caused all of its limbs to fly off.

The constant fighting had forced them to leave the shop, since they had nearly been cornered in there by the endless hordes of monsters. Now they had backed toward the other side of market plaza to try and escape through one of the elevators that could lead them down to C-Sec Headquarters. Legion was busy hacking the elevator lock while everyone else was busy keeping the rotting creatures from all directions. All of the creatures seemed to be twisted undead versions of humans, asari and salarians, which he could only faintly recognize from closely looking at their distorted faces.

Looking over at his team, Garrus could see that they were getting tired out from the overwhelming force. Their shields so far have proved ineffective towards bone blades and claws that grew out from the numerous arms or appendages that the creatures had, since their attacks were more physical toward them. Their regeneration mods in their suits were keeping them alive at least, but he doubted they would last much longer now.

Grunt suddenly gave an angry roar when some small form jumped at him and grabbed onto his chest. It looked like a baby with short barbed tentacles splitting out of its back, which it used to stab at the krogan's face.

"Rotting piece of trash!" Grunt said to it as he grabbed the attacking tentacles, stopping it's attended attack when he pulled them back along with the shirking creature.

Throwing it to the ground he stomped it with his foot, crushing it easily into a gory paste before he aimed his shotgun up to fire another attack monster.

"We can't keep this up!" Jacob called out as he flung one creature into the air with his biotics, giving Miranda a chance to hit it with a warp which caused it to fall apart from the attack.

"Elevator almost here. Just a bit longer." Legion said quickly as he continued to type rapidly on his omni-tool.

Suddenly the elevator doors opened and quickly everyone started to back up to get in it to escape.

"Hit them with everything you got! Make sure they don't get close enough to block the doors!" Garrus ordered before firing his shredder rounds over a group of monsters, ripping them apart with ease. Samara, Jacob and Miranda all unleashed their biotics on crowd of creatures, creating a large shockwave that tore through or knocked them back. Taking their chance, everyone hurried into the elevator just as Legion hit the button for the lower level which made the doors slam shut.

"Well…that was too close…" Garrus said between tired pants as he looked over at tired team, who were all busy catching their breath. "So…even the idea of husks being the problem here was wrong…seems like we have something even worse."

"Yes…I have never seen such creatures. You saw how they resembled asari and humans…it shows that there must be some virus or disease turning them into such horrid things…" Samara said in a low and even slightly mournful tone.

"Well that means more questions now." Jacob quickly replied back. "Who made this virus and why…" Shaking his head and giving a sigh, he then said. "You also saw how there were…babies…that had also been changed as well. What sick, fucked up mind makes something that does such a thing!"

He slammed his fist against the wall of the elevator in anger, while Miranda placed a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down.

"We will find out about this, but we can't let ourselves get distracted by our anger. Save it for the people behind this Jacob." She said to him in firm and understanding tone.

Giving a deep sigh, Jacob gave a small nod to her and seemed to relax a bit, but he still had a tense look in his face.

After a long silent moment, the elevator soon stopped and the doors slid open, showing the entrance C-Sec Headquarters.

"Alright…let's be careful here. Don't want the officers to shot at us by accident. "Garrus told the team before slowly walking off the elevator to head for the doors where a small com station was set. Everyone else followed, but kept their distance to let him check if there was anyone even still inside the base. Reaching the com station, Garrus typed in his old C-Sec officer code and soon a small buzzing sound came and then a voice.

"Who are you, some more survivors or the security team we sent out?" Spoke out a gruff voice out of com speaker.

"How about rescue team. We had a feeling that people would bunker down here, so we came here first thing." Garrus replied back in a thankful tone, glad to at least know people had survived.

"Oh thank god…we thought no one would come and get us!" The voice of the security officer exclaimed happily. "Survivors and left over officers have been retreating here for the past day. We even got attacked by those…things…Had to seal off certain sections to stop them, lost a few good men. "

The voice became silent and gave a low sigh, before Garrus then spoke up again. "They did well protecting everyone still. We will be sure that they don't get forgotten for their duty."

"Good…that would be nice…Anyway I'm unlocking the doors, just hurry in before they come back." The officer said.

The heavy doors beeped and the lights above them turned green before the quickly slid open, showing an older human C-Sec officer dressed in riot armor. Already Garrus and the rest of his team quickly hurried pass the armored doors, which the officer quickly sealed once they got in.

The inside of the C-Sec HQ seemed more like a full hospital now. Cots and medical equipment was set up all over the place, with injured civilians and security officers lying around bandaged up or being consoled by someone to help with shock. The C-Sec officers that stood around guarding or moving on patrol were mainly dressed in riot armor, unlike normal officer suits or armor.

"So how come your not using the standard armor? Riot armor does not have the same shield power as it." Garrus asked in a slightly curious tone.

"Shields are no good with these creatures, even the ones that shoot those bards or explosives, since they just tear right through it. However riot armor is just built tougher, better for facing physical attacks then taking a gun shot." The officer quickly said with a small chuckle. "Was my idea really and so far it has helped save a few from losing a limb to those things."

Garrus nodded in agreement, understanding the advantage they gave for the officers. "So how many people do you have here?" Garrus asked the officer after looking back at the injured survivors.

"At least fifty civilians and twenty five officers that are uninjured and about at least thirdly injured on both sides, so that's about one hundred. A few people may not make it…some of them are just too injured to move and have lost limbs to those things.

"Anyway, how big is the rescue team and ship? I mean…this can't be the entire team right?" He said in questioning manner as he looking over at everyone else.

"Well…had our groups split up to find survivors and to learn how all of this happened, but I'm sure you could fill us in on what exactly happen." Garrus said, trying to avoid the question about the Normandy, which he knew could not carry all of these people.

The officer quickly had a more serious look at the question. "What happened was all those things came off that large mining ship that drifted here. As soon as a scouting team was sent to see if anyone was on board those creatures charged out and killed them all. We already had bulkheads lower when the team status went down and we soon were picking them off with drones and turrets to try and clear a way for another team to seal the ship."

He gave a shaken sigh and paused for a moment, giving downcast look now before he continued. "We did have a few get through the vents, but even got those sealed…however…after a few hours of lockdown we had a complete system crash and all security doors were unlocked, making it easy for them to swarm in. We barely got enough control to get an evacuation, but even then many people were dead. Still a good amount of people escaped to ships or to the other wards before the ward wide lockdown happened and sealed us in. After that we have been holed up here and sending teams out to find people or to get a way out of here, but that has been going bad as well…"

The whole team was silent as they listened to the story, nodding a bit and thinking over the facts of what had happened and what they can do now.

"Well…to tell you the truth…we don't exactly have a rescue plan right now. We were pretty much sent to see what the situation was and then call command after that. However our com signals are being jammed by something, so we can't call for help…"

The officer sighed deeply and had a depressed look on his face for a moment, but quickly looked up with a more serious look.

"Well then…I think I do know the problem for the jammer at least! The thing is our search parties have set up temporary cameras when they went out and recently we have found out about these people…"

Guided everyone over to a large terminal, he pressed a few buttons to bring up a few video screens up. Soon recordings of a few groups of soldiers dressed in black and white armor moving around different parts of the ward in an orderly manner. Any of the creatures that got in their way were quickly shot down, their shots many focused on the limbs to take down the monsters with greater ease. They would then gather up samples from the dead creatures, however as one soldier kneeled down it was easy to see the Cerberus symbol on the shoulder of his armor.

"I should have known…It would have been only a matter of time before Cerberus would know about this." Miranda said in a more serious tone when they paused the video to that certain scene.

"What…you mean is she really serious…" The officer started before Garrus suddenly spoke up.

"Yes…but hopefully it has nothing to do with these monsters. Cerberus maybe pro human, but even they know better than to just publicly test a bioweapon here."

Both Jacob and Miranda nodded in agreement, since both knew fully well about the workings of the dangerous organization.

"By the looks of it they are here to just collect sample…Research most likely. Still if they many even the slightest mistake they could get infected or spread this thing." Jacob said in a stern tone.

"Then we will be sure to put a stop to that…All we need to do is to find them." Garrus answered back in agreement.

"Then you best look in the northern district…" The Officer said quickly with a short nod. "That area so far has been the more devoid of those things and most likely has that jammer set up. Your best bet of getting there are through the service catwalks that the keepers use."

Garrus gave a nod to him and looked back at his team. "Well sounds like a plan. Let's shut down that jammer and then organize a rescue for everyone here before meeting up with Shepard's team." Looking back at the officer, he then said. "Keep up the defenses here for just a bit longer. We will call you once the coms work again."

"Alright…I'll be sure to keep everyone around here to hold things together. Anyway, just head up to the top level of HQ and take the service exit out. We will lock it once you're out."

"Then let's not waste any more time then." Garrus said, before turning around to head for the stairs up, the rest of the team close behind him. Soon they found the service exit and quickly opened it, looking out to make sure nothing was waiting for them outside. Quickly they drew their guns and moved out onto the large service catwalks, the door behind them closing and locking once they were all out as they went on to their newest goal.

…

Isaac yelled out as he grasped the grabbing claws around his neck, trying his best not to look down at the ground below him. The new necromorph creature shrieked in his face, mandibles snapping at his face, which forced him to quickly lean his head back to avoid them. Suddenly, he lashed out with a head butt right to its forehead, making it cry out as it seemingly lost balance in the pace of its wing beats. Already they were dropping down to the ground, but now the creature's hold around his neck and weakened, allowing him to pull one claw hand away from his neck to breath and to make it easier for him to lash out with a strike with his plasma cutter.

The hard metal of the tool bashed the right side of the flying necromorpher's distorted face, making mandible on that side break off and hand by a small string of muscle. It gave another shriek at him, but he soon had his plasma cutter right up to its neck before firing to silence it. Head falling off, the body started shaking and moving around on its own still, making its wings and arms shaking around wildly. Isaac gave a grunt as it hit him in the chest which caused him to fall back and down to the ground from the force of the blow. Lucky, the wildly flapping wings had slowed the fall and had let him fall closer to the ground to not cause any major harm.

Panting heavily, Isaac stood up and walked over to the fallen corpse of the necromorpher and aimed the cutter up at its wings to shoot them both off with a well-placed shot. It suddenly reached up in pain and gave a low gurgling sound, since it lacked a head now, before fall back dead now.

Already Isaac was on the move once more now, certain that docking center must be close now since the signs he saw along the walls. He just hoped he could get the Ishimura free before this nightmare spread out any more.

…

Eland watched the whole fight between the survivor from the ship and the transformed turian, typing down a few notes into his omni-tool to give to Ronza later.

"I shame -sss- that he did not die." The volus muttered to himself, knowing now that this engineer was becoming more of a threat now.

Not only had he seemed to deal with the normal versions of the creatures, but he was even figuring out how to combat even the newly created ones. If he found a way to even free the Ishimura it would cause troubles for them all and anger Ronza. Perhaps they would have to use their mercenary friend to eliminate him then.

Giving a sigh, he looked at the other screens to see the progress of Shepard's group and the Cerberus team. So far Cerberus had been dealing well so far, a bit too well as if they already knew how to deal with such creatures. Still, he knew that Ronza tip had been useful to the Illusive Man, but they should have expected that he would have planned out such a planned out group.

Moving away from the control room and into the large lab nearby where Ronza did is many experiments and studies. He was surprised at how well prepared the quarian was, even if this lab was just set up for his own personal work and many illegal deals before the Ishimura had arrived.

Still, he questioned why he was so interested to remain on the Citadel since they now had all the samples and methods to control the creatures. With such a virus, they could easily make a profit from selling this off to governments as a bioweapon or even use it for their own goals. But the way the quarian acted seemed to hint something deeper, yet he could not explain what just yet.

Leaving the lab now, he walked into the next room were the subsonic generator was set up, giving a low high pitched hum to show it was powered. Moving up to a control screen, he tapped a few buttons and brought up a map the ward area, showing the spread of the subsonic spread over the necromorpher infected areas. Quickly he changed a few settings, making the machine buzz louder as he increased the power of it to make the more larger creatures head toward Shepard and Cerberus's team locations.

"Hehehe… -sss- It will all be -sss- over soon…" He said to himself as he hurried back to the control room to watch the chaos begin.

However, soon after, Ronza stepped out of the shadows and stepped toward the controls, looking at how his partner had set them.

"I will have her at least…she will see how my work will enlighten our kind…" He muttered to himself as he worked on the controls, setting up a much more complex plan for the necromorphs.

…

Shepard and his team hurried down the hallway, all of them looking around as the howls and crawling sounds of the monsters filled the air. It seemed as if all the creatures were gathering together just to hunt them down.

"We can't out run them. Must find defensive position and take stand." Mordin said quickly as he looked over his shoulder to see faint glowing eyes in the darkness behind them.

"Then let's hope the directions were right to leading to a transit station then." Shepard answered back before the made a sharp turn down the corridor and into the station lobby.

Before he even gave an order, everyone was already moved out to set up a defensive area, moving chairs and benches around to form a barricade or to seal up any nearby doors and air ducts. While, he moved to check the far side of the station, he saw one door open up suddenly and a group of eight figures dressed in black combat armor with hazmat helmets. They soon sealed the door behind them, but when one turned to look at him, he quickly saw the emblem of Cerberus on the chest and shoulder of their armor.

"Sir, its Shepard!" He called out before turning to one member of the group, who was outfitted in a more advanced combat suit.

The leader of the Cerberus group looked at Shepard, his face completely hidden behind the helm and facemask to hide away any expressions from Shepard, who already had one hand trailing back for his heavy pistol.

"Well Shepard…surprising to see you here so soon after leaving Cerberus…" The masked Cerberus Agent said to him. "The Illusive Man was very disappointed with your choice with the Collector Base…But this new situation may just prove to be just as useful…"

Shepard looked back a bit to see his team noticing the Cerberus Agents as well and were already hurrying to protect him since he was out numbered, not that he could defeat the team on his own.

"Is Cerberus behind this somehow then? Some twisted test of some new bioweapon and to make it seem like some terrorist attack." Shepard said to keep the Agent talking.

"We may go to extremes at times Commander, but even this is too far to us as well." The Agent answered back. "We just learned about this…incident and some information about the mining ship sent by an informant. Right now we are just here to gather and record…along with removing any annoyances as well…"

Soon he and the rest of the Cerberus soldiers raised they assault rifles up to aim them right at him, a few even sitting up armor-piercing mods to their guns.

"I'm not alone in this…" Shepard said back in a more stern tone as he drew his heavy pistol, along with everyone else in his team drawing their own weapons in retaliation. "Besides, we don't have time for this! Those things could break into here any second now."

"Then we will make this quick then…open fire!" The Agent called out, but before anyone could even fire their weapons, the ground started to shake and loud smashing sounds could be hear coming from the sealed doors and vents all around the station.

"Now that sounds like something big…" Thane muttered, as everyone started looking around, forgetting about the fight they were about to have.

Then suddenly, the door that the Cerberus team had sealed just got ripped apart by some large creature that was hidden partly from the darkness of the doorway. It was at least twice the size of a human and had large, thick arms that could easily tear through anything in its path.

With a loud cry, he lunged out of the torn doorway to grab the nearest Cerberus soldier, who cried out in pain as the massive hand cracked bones even through his combat armor.

"Kill it! Kill it now!" He howled out to the others before the creature slammed him into the ground to silence him.

"Shoot it!" The Cerberus Agent yelled out, who already was firing off his assault rifle right at the creature's chest.

The rest of the Cerberus team fired at it as well, but most of their shots just hit the bone plating that covered most of the creature's front. It just roared out in anger from their attacks and some just threw the broke body of the soldier at them, making them break formation to avoid the corpse. Then it charged out at the scattered soldiers, punching and swinging at them as they tried to fight it off.

Already Shepard was backing away and turned to look back at his team, but soon saw the other doors that they had also sealed bend and twist as more of these large creatures forced their way into the large station lobby.

"There are too many!" Tali yelled out as she fired her shotgun out at one, making it stagger back from the force of it, but hardly hurting it.

Everything was just going to hell now as at least four of the creatures finally fitted themselves through the torn doorways to surround Shepard's retreating team and the desperate fighting Cerberus soldiers.

"Everyone, stay with someone and try to escape! They can't focus on all of us!" Shepard ordered out, before looking back at the Cerberus team. Another one of the hulking creatures had joined up in the fight and only six more of the Cerberus soldiers were standing.

Still, that left the other three creatures left to chase down Shepard and the rest. Already Thane and Mordin with moving for one of the torn exits, each of them firing out at any of the nearing monsters with sniper rounds or incinerate.

Jack was hurrying toward Tali, who was busy keeping one creature back by using a drone to distract it, while she fired at it still with her shotgun. Shepard was already running to her as well, shooting off a concussion shot off at the last monster that was following after him, knocking it over even despite its large size.

As he neared Tali, he opened fire with his assault rifle to the back of the creature, which howled out suddenly from his attack. Looking more closely, he could see that its back was unarmored unlike the front. Taking this chance to injury it more, he quickly reloaded and shot at it more, aiming at the back of the knees until the suddenly gave way and collapsed.

"Run for it Tali!" He yelled out to her as she looked over the fallen creature and right at him. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then Jack reached her to pull her away for the nearest exit. Shepard sprinted after them, but as he started to near them the ground shook again, forceful each to make the other creatures stumble as well.

"What the fuck is it now!" Jack yelled out as she and Tali got their balance back and looked around as if expecting something to just burst in to attack them.

However, Shepard could see something moving around in the large vents around them both and already he was moving toward them, hoping to be fast enough to push them away.

Still, he was too late as the large tentacle of twisted flesh forced out of the vent to lash out at Jack and Tali, knocking them both aside and away from each other. The tendril then moved to Shepard hitting him aside before he could even attack and then wrapping around Tali.

Shepard was already getting up, dazed by the blow, but not injured too badly. However, he gave a shocked look as he saw Tali struggling in the grasp of the tentacle, which was pulling her into the vent.

"No, Tali!" He yelled out as he shook off the daze from his mind and hurried to grab her reaching arms.

Grabbing hold of her, he pulled back against the tendril, using every bit of enhanced strength he had to try and free her. But it was just too strong as it was now slowly pulling Tali more to the vent and having her slip more some his grasp.

"Shepard!" Tali cried out to him, her faint glowing eyes have a pleading look in them as she looked right at him.

"Tali! I won't lose you, just hold on!" He said to her as he kept pulling back, but then suddenly felt her hands slip away from his.

For one moment everything seemed to slow as he watched Tali get completely pulled back into the vent, the look of despair just painful to see as she disappeared into the darkness of the duct tunnels.

"TALI!" Shepard yelled out in shock and anger, disbelieving from the many missions he had gone through with her that he would lose her like this.

Looking over to Jack, he saw Mordin and Thane pulled her away to safety for the exit, both of them looking back with saddened faces at their loss. Shepard gave a pained look to them and then looked back to the vent, hearing faint echoes from it still.

"The plan is the same…We regroup at the Ishimura docking bay…" He said to them in a serious tone. "Find Garrus if you can…I'll be back with Tali..."

Before any of them could speak back or even try to stop him, he already climbed into the large air duct and hurried forward, the image of Tali's pleading look still fresh in his mind.

"I won't lose anyone….I won't lose her…" He said to himself as he just followed the dented trail that the tentacle had left behind.

As he made a turn around the long duct tunnel, he felt the metal under him groan as it started to bend more from him standing on it. The duct floor then gave way, making Shepard drop down into the darkness before and to a uncertain fate.

…

Tali just yelled and struggled against the gripping tentacle, trying to free herself from it as she was pulled deeper into the maze of air ducts. She could not aim her shotgun well enough to hit it, since each movement it made had her arm shake, almost making her drop her weapon.

"Shepard…Someone…" She said weakly, her body sore from the tight hold of the tendril and her mind in complete despair.

Soon she was pulled into a large air circulation hub, moving across it for another air duct to who knows where. As she was half way across the room, a sudden sound of a sub-machine gun filled the air, along with the tentacle twitching and shaking as it was shot at. Its grip weakened and soon Tali was able to slip out from its hold to group down to the metal ground. Looking up, he watched the tendril retreat into the vent quickly, leaving the room in complete silence now.

Slowly, she stood up and looked back to see her savoir, hoping it was Shepard who had somehow followed after her. A figure stepped out of the shadows to stand in the faint light of the room, holding a well-designed and custom built sub-machine in hand. Tali have a faint gasp as she saw the dark black and purple environmental suit, then his masked face to fully see that her rescuer was a Quarian. But was more surprising was how see recognized the specially designed suit and faint outline of his face in the mask.

"R-Ronza! Is that you?" She asked in a low and surprised tone as she stepped forward a bit toward him.

The Quarian was silent for a long moment, but soon gave a small chuckle and nod to her as he looked at her.

"Yes…and it has been a long time Tali'Zorah...I'm surprised to find you here with…everything that is going on." He said in a calm and smooth voice.

Tali gave a faint nod to him, but seemed to stop moving toward him as she now stared back at him. "Why are you here though? The Admiralty Board said you disappeared on a mission they sent you on years ago."

Ronza seemed to tense up for a moment, but as quickly as it had appeared, he quickly relaxed once more. "There is more then you know behind that…but we can't talk now with such danger around us." He answered back to her. "I have a safe place for us to hide at, so at let us wait until we reach there before we discuss my reasons for being here…"

Before she could reply back, he was already moving down to a maintenance door which he opened with just one quick command on his omni-tool. As he disappeared into the tunnel, Tali stood there as she was uncertain to follow him or not. Still, she needed to be someplace safe to try and track down Shepard and the others, so she knew she had no better choice left but to follow. Besides, she wondered why the top member of her own flotilla had disappeared from so long and the truth behind it as well.

So, she quickly followed after him, walking into the darkness of the open tunnel to find out the truth of her old closest friend.

Author's Note: Well that took long enough, sorry how this chapter took forever to write. It's just been slow with all the reediting, school, finding work and just being lazy over the many months. Still, it's finished and I do hope it is enough for everyone. The story is slowly coming together and I'm sure more questions will need answering in the end. Please comment if you see any major mistakes or questions about my writing. If my lore on any of the games has been wrong or lacking, just tell me and I'll try my best to correct things. My next chapter will take time as well, but I'll be sure to make it all the better as well.


	5. Chapter Four: Deception

**Chapter Four: Deception**

The fall seemed to just go on and on for Shepard as he continued to drop into the abyss of darkness, arms swinging out to grab at some unseen handhold. His armored body bashed and hit against crossing ducts now, driving a pained yell from him before continuing to fall. As this all happened the constant thought of Tali kept going through his mind, seeing her get dragged away to face the horrors farther ahead. Thinking about her made his determination come back to him, making him focus once more now.

Soon, another slamming hit from a metal duct went across his chest, knocking the wind out of him again. However, this time his hands grasped at the smooth metal and found a hold onto it, keeping him and place now to stop him from falling.

"I won't lose her…not after all we faced before together…" He muttered to himself, before slowly pulling himself up onto the vent top. Standing on it, he kept his balance before he moved down to look for a maintenance vent hidden around somewhere, since the Keepers needed a way to go about even here to make repairs. Soon, he found one farther ahead built into the wall, leading him more to the air control tunnels that littered around the entire Citadel.

He had no idea of where Tali was in this maze of tunnels and ducts, but he knew he would find her somehow, even if all the odds were against him. Facing the impossible was almost something daily to him by now, but this time it had become personal.

…

Hidden away in the deepest parts of the Citadel, Tali carefully followed Ronza who guided her through the many different tunnels and vents, seemingly know his way around the endless maze. She was stilled worried about the rest of the team and Shepard, hoping they had escaped as well. Still, knowing Shepard, he was most likely searching for her this very moment. However, she trusted Ronza, just as much as Shepard since he had long been her friend when they were both students, learning different skills for their pilgrimage.

Ronza was considered the best of out of the newest generation, being skilled in electronics, repairs, medical and even combat, proving to be quite at close quarters fighting. Tali had been one of his many admirers and he seemed to have noticed her out of all the others, so they had become close before leaving on their separate pilgrimages.

"Ronza…Why have you been away from the Migrant Fleet for over two years?" Tali asked him after a long moment of silence. "The Admiralty Board said you died…of course everyone doubted that and said you were looking for something important for us all."

Ronza remained silent still, his face still turned away and making Tali worry about him until he finally looked to her. "There were…issues from certain work. The Admiralty Board did not agree with it, but I know that it is the key to bringing us a home…"

"What do you mean? Is it something about beating the Geth or something?" She asked, confused on what he was meaning exactly.

"What I have found is a cure…a cure for us…" He answered back, before stopping at one point and turning to face the wall of the service tunnel. Pressing his hand against one point, a control pad filled out of the wall which he quickly pressed in a code to cause the hidden door to open up for them.

Guiding Tali into the dimly lit hallway, the door closed behind them as they now walked into the lab. Quickly, she looked around to see all the different tables, laid out with testing equipment and tech for all sorts of different projects. What was more shocking where the large test tubes with the twisted creatures she and the team have fought.

"Ronza…what is all of this?" She asked him in a worried voice as she looked at him and backing away a bit, his eyes behind his visor having a serious look in them.

…

Isaac slowed his run to take a moment to rest, panting heavily behind his visor as he looked around to make sure it was clear. Still he was completely lost in this massive space station, without a single clue of where the docking control was. Taking out a medkit off his belt, he quickly and carefully treated any wounds he got from his fight with that new flying necromorpher that he had barely escaped from.

His only option now it seemed was to find help from anyone still alive on the station, since someone here would know how to get the Ishimura free so he could take away it's monsters and so he could finish his mission in returning the Marker. He still had the sinking feeling that he was being watched, not by the monsters but someone else. From what he had seem of the necromorphs, they were moving together in larger groups and using more planned attacks, something they never truly done so far.

It was just becoming an added mystery since his arrival to this station, but hopefully he could set things right. Now more rested, he started to get moving again before suddenly hearing voices coming his direction. He could only understand a couple of words, but the voice seemed alien. Ducking behind a pillar, he waited for them to near to at least figure out who they were exactly.

…

Mordin, Jack and Thane all slowed down in their run, having escaped the horde of monsters and the Cerberus Agents.

"Was it wise to let Shepard run off like that alone? It's reckless to go on alone with all those creatures about." Thane said to the others, while keeping a sharp look out around them.

"Was no time to stop him, besides he could not just leave Tali…He would go to any risk to save us, but for her he give his life for." Mordin said in a serious tone.

"Guess so, besides Shepard can handle himself." Jack added in as well.

"True…but still…you saw how those creatures just seemed to find us. Someone or something is guiding them. Unsure how such creatures can be controlled in such a way. Perhaps pheromones or sound…hmm…" Mordin said, following along with his thoughts on the creatures.

Thane however could hear a taint shuffling behind one of the pillars and glanced over to the others, his eyes looking over to it before giving a small nod.

Mordin and Jack nodded back, understanding what he meant before all drawing their weapons and aiming at the pillar. Quickly, Jack used her biotics to pull the figure out of cover, making him yell out in surprised before landing in front of them but quickly getting up on his feet. The man was dressed in some metal suit of some kind that looked like a space suit of some kind. It even had a helmet and visor that covered up his face was well.

"What the fuck, who the hell is this guy?" Jack spoke out loudly, aiming his shotgun up more at him.

"Well he's human…" Thane said, his rifle lowering a bit since he could tell that man wasn't a threat to them.

"Uncertain…suit not of any design I have seen before, ever of old human works." Mordin said in a curious manner as he studied him.

The man looked between all three of them, giving a uncertain look to Mordin and Thane, but focusing on Jack. "Look…just lower that gun please and tell your weird buddies here to calm down. I don't like how they are staring at me." Isaac suddenly said in a nervous voice.

"Well…he can talk at least." Jack said with a small sneer as she looked to the others.

"Wait…if he does not have a translator then he could be from that mining ship." Thane said quickly.

"Yes…I do think I can have a solution to this…" Mordin added before activating his omni-tool to link up to their translators. After a few moments, he took a moment to clear his voice, before speaking again to Isaac. "Sorry about our misunderstanding. Thought you were one of those creatures or a spy of Cerberus."

Isaac seemed to relax a bit more now that he could understand the strange alien, who he could barely understand because of how fast he spoke. Taking a moment to press a button on the side of his helmet to rise his visor up and show his face, he gave a sigh before looking at them.

"My name is Isaac Clarke, engineer of The USG Kellion which was sent to repair the Ishimura. I guess I have a lot to explain here…about the necromorphs and what I need to do with the ship." Isaac said after a moment of silence, his voice quite serious to them.

"Necromorphs…fitting name for such creatures…Tell me more Isaac, I'm sure we can figure out a solution to both of our problems here." Mordin said, a showing interesting in his voice as he already had his omni-tool out to start taking notes.

…

Eland was moving away from the surveillance room to take a break, but stopped in the lab when he noticed Ronza with the female Quarian from the videos of Shepard's team.

"What is -sss- she doing here?" The Volus said in a surprised tone to the male Quarian. "I thought you-"

"I saved her and nothing more Eland!" Ronza snapped back angrily, silencing before he could say more. "She can be trusted…she must understand my goal here." Taking a breath, he calmed down before speaking again. "Leave us please...I need you to speak to our friend in armory about her new mission. You know what to tell her."

Eland, breathed loudly as he looked at them, but gave a small sigh and nodded before moving away, muttering to himself. "Foolish -sss- Quarian…Will ruin -sss- everything because of that girl…"

Already he reached the heavy metal door of the armory, which he unlocked and opened before walking in. Sitting at a work bench was an asari dressed in a light top of the line combat uniform. Her back was turned to him as she was busy working on a pistol, adding mods to the already deadly weapon.

"Ronza says -sss- it's time." He simply said to her.

Quickly, she turned to him, a cold smile on her lips as she held up the weapon. "Perfect…and Shepard is out there yes?" She said in a smooth voice.

The Volus nodded. "Yes…you have orders -sss- to kill him, that is if he is alive."

"Oh trust me he is…and I plan to have him pay for what he did to me back Noveria all those years ago!" She answered back in an angry voice as he raised her left arm up to show it was robotic limb. "For killing the Matriarch and my team!"

…

Tali looked back to Ronza when the volus had left them, the worried look in her eyes still showing at she stared at him. "Explain yourself Ronza, what was it you were doing that made the Board say you were dead?" He demanded from him.

Ronza seemed to relax and a faint chuckle came from him as he moved closer to her. "Simple…they were scared of what I had found." He said in a calm and collected voice. "I was studying our DNA, looking into what makes are weak and unique immunity system. Because of how our planet is we did not need a strong immune system, which made it difficult to live on other worlds…and even more when forced off our home world."

Slowly, he paced around her to a table, opening a case to take out a green gas canister which he stared at intently. "I pieced together how our unique system also made us immune to diseases in a way, since we suffer from coughs and other fever like symptoms. All we needed was to make it strong enough to free us of our suits, then we never have to worry of suit breaches in combat or making colonies. I went to the Board and asked to stay a program to change our genetic make up, but they refused, saying that such actions would only harm our race and break even more laws of the Council! The fools…"

He placed the canister back in its case before looking to her, seeing the shock in her eyes as she backed away from him. "Y-you can't be serious!" She said to him in disbelief. "You would never go that far…to change what we are just to make life easier, even though it is permanent."

"Yes! At any cost for freedom!" He answered back in a louder tone. "It has taken me years to fully understand our DNA and hundreds of thousands of credits to fund my projects. I have been forced to deal with all sorts of illegal work to get such money, but for the better of our race I did so. But even with all my work there was just something missing…something that I have recently found."

Slowly, he walked over to one giant test tube, pressing a hand against it as he looked at the twisted monster inside. "The necromorphs…a quite a special being indeed…for a virus." He said in a calm voice once more. "It was quite a shock really when they attacked from that ship. I was out when that happened and when I saw all those people getting cut down and infected I thought I was going to die…but you see these creature just ignored me."

Turning away from the tube, he walked back toward her, but stopped when she had her hand drop down for her pistol. Giving a stern look to her, he kept his distance as he continued. "I figured these creatures can 'see' our genetic makeup…in a way figure out who are more fitting pray to turn. However…our DNA is different and with our unique immunity systems, the creatures know their virus can't inject us…even in death because of our DNA."

Tali was surprised at what he was saying, but was surprised at how their race was safe from these creatures. "Then why they attack me then?" She questioned, a more aggressive side hinted in her voice.

"Your…team are all perfect hosts to the necropmorphs. With you so close to them I believe they could not tell you apart from them for the moment…." He said, not mentioning how he had also been controlling the creatures as well. "But the point is Tali…I have been able to find that last bit of genetic code needed to change ours. The necromorphs have proven to have a mountain of useful genetic data and the virus is a perfect host for my formula. In fact…I have already taken it…"

Slowly, he raised a hand up to his visor and started undoing the safety latches for it. "No don't!" Tali started, but it was too late as he pulled it aside, giving a deep breath of air, his eyes closed now. He was handsome as she remembered him back when they had the rare time outside of their suits; it pained her since she had cared so much about him, even after hearing all evil things he had done.

"Yes Tali…I did it…" He said in his smooth voice, a smile showing on his face. "I have the cure that will make our people strong. To beat the Geth and take our place in the galaxy! This is just a piece of my whole plan…and once it all comes together all the Quarains will follow me to take what is theirs!" And with that he opened his eyes, which instead of being the light purple she had remembered, had now become a dark green color.

"Oh Keelah…Ronza…what have you done…What have you done!" Tali said out in fear, stepping back until her back pressed against the wall of the lab.

Slowly he walked up to her, until his face was inches from her masked face, an evil grin on his face as he looked into her eyes through her mask. "Simple Tali…I have become the future…" He said in a causal tone before giving a low laugh as he stepped away from her, snatching away both her pistol and shotgun before she could even react. "And you will also join as well…"

Author note: Again, life has been busy for me, with college starting and such. I really have been trying my best to work this crossover really and forming an interesting and detailed plot for it as well. I know I don't give a big description of Ronza's face or Isaac, but you all know how Isaac is and I have no idea what a Quarain looks like, so sorry if you don't like that. I hope Ronza's genetic change plan does not sound too absurd or anything, since it took me quite a while to think it up. Still, if you have questions, complaints or ideas you wish to share please tell me so I can improve my work. Thank you all my subscribers and any viewers of my writing, who I all hope enjoy my crossover.


End file.
